Keeping it under wraps
by Ron and his Sakura
Summary: One shot fluffiness, Mei-Ling and Touya endeavor to keep their relationship a secret from family and friends. written for Cal Reflector for the tsukimineshrine Secret Santa.


One-shot fic I wrote for Cal Reflector for the 2008 Live Journal **tsukimineshrine** Secret Santa exchange. The prompt was:

Touya-Meiling (pairing), Secret

* **

It was an admirable performance by both individuals. Interactions were polite but detached. At the Li family shrine, their eyes remained fixed upon the nuptial pair throughout the day-long proceedings. At the wedding banquet that followed, they kept their distance, staying among the members of their respective families. And during the after dinner dance--a concession to the bride, who wanted at least one opportunity to wear a Western-style wedding gown in an otherwise completely traditional Chinese wedding-- they only danced together once and only after Touya had danced through the entire roster of Syaoran's sisters first.

However, once the bridal couple had retired to their honeymoon chamber and the party dispersed, Touya slipped over to Mei Ling's hotel room, and restraint gave way to emotions that felt as if they had been suppressed an eternity.

"So tell me again why we're keeping this a secret from everyone?" said Mei Ling after their hunger for one another's touch and taste had been somewhat sated.

Touya gave her a wry look. "You do realize that we're in a hotel filled with your relatives. Your very conservative, magic-wielding relatives. If they knew, there wouldn't be a chance I'd get alone with you like this."

"Like this" meaning Touya lying on the sofa with Mei Ling pressed against the length of his body like a luxurious and elegant drape. She'd undone most of the buttons of his tuxedo shirt and was tracing her fingers lightly over the skin of his chest. As he savored the tantalizing sensation, Touya vaguely noted the current location of his vest, tie, and tuxedo jacket amongst the clutter Tomoyo, Mei Ling, and Syaoran's sisters had created during Sakura's wardrobe changes and reminded himself to retrieve them before he left. It wouldn't do for one of other bridesmaids to come looking for a forgotten something and find a man's bowtie amongst the jumble of bridal accessories in Mei Ling's hotel room. For now though, he was busy toying with Mei Ling's hair, which had escaped the complicated twist she'd worn for the wedding and now tumbled loose around her bare shoulders like a black silk curtain.

Toying with a lock of that dark glossy length, Touya continued, "Not to mention, this is my sister's and your cousin's wedding. It would be in bad taste for us if we'd taken the spotlight away from their special moment with that kind of announcement."

"You say that," drawled Mei Ling, "but I think that it has more to do with the fact that you've been dishing it to Syaoran but aren't looking forward to taking it."

The Chinese girl had, as usual, hit the nail on the proverbial head. While her razor-sharp powers of observation had been one of the reasons why Touya had been attracted to her, at the moment, he wished Mei Ling was a little more dull.

"I think," she went on, "that after a decade of giving Syaoran a hard time about being around your precious baby sister, that the irony of potentially having him in the big brother protector role watching and questioning your every move with me is a bitter pill for you to take."

Toya scowled, knowing that not only was she right but if he had even caught Sakura and Syaoran doing anything remotely close to what they were now, there would have been blood shed.

"But you know what?"

"What?" he grumbled.

Mei Ling touched the tip of her nose to his. "I will make it more than worth any trouble he might cause."

He chuckled then, deep in his throat, and drew her silk clad warmth even closer to him as the temptation to tug down the zipper of her maroon evening gown grew even stronger. She would make it more than worthwhile, he knew, because she already had.

Still though, it was something that had completely blindsided him. He remembered meeting her vaguely from the days that Sakura was capturing cards, but then, she'd just been one of his little sister's friends. And then she'd moved back to Hong Kong after a few months. So they were little more than strangers that happened to be related to people they cared about when they met again in the hustle of preparations leading up to Sakura and Syaoran's wedding.

In the eyes of the prestigious Li clan, the wedding was not just a joining of two individuals but the momentous joining of two families. As such, Sakura had to be accompanied by a family representative for all the obligatory family meetings associated with the welcoming of a bride marrying the head of the family. Unfortunately, Fujitaka's schedule had him at a dig in Egypt until two days before the wedding so Touya, who had just finished his graduate studies in mechanical engineering, delayed the start of his job until after Sakura's wedding that he might act in his father's stead. So it was that he accompanied Sakura to Hong Kong a month before the wedding for a whirlwind of introductions, dinners, meetings, and ceremonies.

While Touya had learned some Mandarin while at university, those lessons proved almost useless in Hong Kong, and as such, Syaoran asked his cousin Mei Ling, who was fluent in both Japanese and Cantonese, to act as translator for Sakura's brother. And the girl, ever eager to help her favorite cousin, did just that, and more. She served as navigator through the winding, labyrinthine streets of Hong Kong, briefed Toya on family politics and connections, and saved him from more than one faux pas. In addition, Mei Ling was one of the wedding organizers, responsible for making sure the Kinomoto family knew what to do and expect on the wedding day. So Mei Ling and Touya wound up spending a great deal of time together -- in cafés, in teahouses, in the Li family parlor—going over lists, names, schedules, titles, and all the other minutiae related to an elaborate Chinese wedding.

Initially, those meetings were simply about working out with logistics and passing information. However, as the days went on, they began to tarry in one another's company, talking about careers, movies, philosophy, sports, memories -- anything and everything once their work had been long finished. Touya found the vibrant Chinese girl an intriguing mix of old and new, traditional and cosmopolitan. Fluent in five languages, she struck him as the sort who could feel at home just about anywhere in the world, and for some reason, he found himself feeling very at home in her company.

And then, a week before the wedding, everything had come to an abrupt head. One of the Li elders had thrown a dinner in celebration of the upcoming nuptials. Among the guests had been Mei Ling's parents, and by the end of the evening, her father had been drunk. Disgustingly drunk. And when Mei Ling tried to persuade her father it was time to leave, he'd angrily knocked her to the ground and, to Toya's shock, loosed an outpouring of verbal abuse. He'd called her a disgrace to the family, railed against her lack of magic, and cursed her for her overall uselessness.

"We'd arranged for you to marry the head of the family, and you couldn't even do that right, worthless girl!"

Touya hadn't understood half what was said, but what he could left him stunned. But even more appalling was the response of the others around him. By this time, Sakura and Syaoran had already left as had most of the other guests. But at least a dozen Li relatives remained, and they simply looked on, as if in silent assent. And when Mei Ling's father raised his hand to strike his daughter, only one person in the room leapt to her defense.

"Li-san, I think that's enough. This is supposed to be a celebration after all." Touya's Cantonese had been broken and his voice calm, but Touya's vicious grip on the drunken man's wrist more than effectively communicated the sentiments that lay beneath his cool exterior.

Her father had paled. Even drunk, he'd known better than to continue his rant. He'd staggered out of the banquet hall immediately afterwards with the rest of the guests close behind.

As soon as the last one had left, Touya's anger had immediately turned to concern. Mei Ling hadn't stirred at all from where she'd fallen. The woman that he'd known to be so strong and outspoken to the outside world hadn't done a thing to protect herself against her father, hadn't said a single word in her defense. Kneeling beside her, he'd lifted her off the floor gently. "Hey, hey, are you okay?"

He'd anticipated tears, fright, outrage -- _something_. But when he brushed her hair from her face, there'd been nothing in her eyes except a dulled, resigned look. And Touya had felt his own heart break to see that the cruelty of her own family had convinced her that she was nothing.

"Don't – don't listen to them," he'd said, voice shaking. "They don't know anything. Just because you don't have magic doesn't make you any less of a person. I know. If anyone, I should know that. They're too blind and foolish to see it, but you are an amazing, beautiful woman, and don't you ever forget that."

She'd looked up then, her eyes brimming with tears. And then unexpectedly, she'd kissed him. Desperately, passionately, fiercely. She'd taken him by surprise, both with her kiss and the depth of emotion behind it, but in the very next heartbeat, Touya'd kissed her back. And from the way his heart had swelled at her touch, he knew in that moment he wouldn't be able to let her go.

And that was how it began. Perhaps members of the Li family would call them a pathetic couple. The man who given away his powers with the girl who never had any to start with. In their eyes, they'd always be on the fringes and never truly a part of their world.

But considering the sparks flying between them, they'd create plenty of magic on their own.

Withdrawing his lips from hers, he said, "So does that I have to prepare some sort of formal announcement soon?"

"No," she replied with an impish grin. "I was just teasing. You are right about my family, and I can't imagine your sister's reaction when she finds out. But even though that day will inevitably come when Syaoran will be breathing down your neck, for now, I think I'd rather keep you to myself."

"That sounds more like it—"

Suddenly, the door slammed open, and Sakura, still clad in her veil and white satin wedding dress, burst into the room like a frilly tulle and lace avalanche.

"Mei Ling-chan!!! I can't find my engagement ring, and I need your help—ONII-CHAN, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!!!"

Touya winced. His sister's scream was loud enough to wake the dead. It was certainly loud enough to wake every living soul in the hotel.

He and Mei Ling looked at one another and sighed. So much for keeping it under wraps.


End file.
